An end mill is a type of milling cutter—a cutting tool used in industrial milling applications. End mills can generally cut in all directions and are used in various applications, such as profile milling, tracer milling, face milling, and plunging.
End mills are expensive to manufacture and, accordingly, various techniques to improve their durability are utilized. For example, to reduce wear of the tool and compliant surface roughness, radiused cutting edges may be provided thereon. While this configuration increases the serviceable life of the cutter, a large radius may cause undesirable vibration during the milling process, producing objectionable noise in the vicinity of a milling machine. Excessive vibration of the end mill may also lead to poor quality of the processed surfaces and a reduction in the service life of the tool.